The public, particularly those who think they are educated have certain expectations from primary care, in other words they think they know best.

This weekend i had somebody instruct me i had to take his wife away as she was mad and as her husband he felt he had the power to request this (he didnt and she was fine)....it didnt stop him causing a scene, spouting some old tosh about legal rights etc etc, eventually the police got rid of this gonad.

I had a mother worried about the fever and croupy cough her child had, the hospital had seen her the day before and given her the steroids used for croup and advice on use of Calpol for temperature control....needless to say mum knew best and decided that 'she doesnt like giving her children medication' and was now demanding that something be done for her poorly child....she was told to stop playing silly buggers and start using the meds she'd been given for the croup, she didnt like this and was sure something else could be done...(a shotgun to her face seemed the kindest thing frankly).

Dealing with patients who are grateful for the care and willing to listen to advice is hugely satisfying, its why a lot of us work in health care....but there seems to be a small but growing percentage of the population who walk into the patient-clinician interaction with pre conceived ideas that they will not deviate from.

I wouldnt choose to work weekends either if i had the choice, weekdays are bad enough but once the weekend comes and people start with their social, family and alcohol problems it starts to become a very tedious job....my trust doesnt seem to want to back me when i proposed we start telling people to 'harden the **** up'....

It cuts both ways. Imo there are GPs who need to stop at their customers and realise that some do actually have intelligence and, indeed, may actually know more about their condition than their GP. I despise arrogance from the NHS.

So you are fundamentally opposed to teachers altering their working paterns to suit modern working paterns but GPs should be permanently available

No, I disagreed with your suggestion. I am happy for changes to be made in a considered way, but disagreed with your "I reckon" back-of-a-fag-packet suggestions that would have entailed fundamental changes to the entire way education was carried out, to enable people go take a cheap package holiday.

On this topic, I think it'd be quite helpful for many people if GP appointments could be made a couple of hours later one night a week. I'm quite happy for any GPs to tell me why this isn't possible.

Maybe you should go to the doctors in one of your 13 weeks of holiday? Unless you are ill, in which case why are you at work?

I got an asthma check-up letter at the start of a ten week half-term; I'm not going to miss work just to go and blow into a tube a few times so had to leave it for ten weeks before I could go.

The real reason is because there is no such thing as an NHS GP. They are and always have been private sector providers who happen to have a contract to provide services to the NHS.

As a result they have no interest in extending their hours of provision as that would increase costs and reduce profits. It would of course be far better if GPs worked for the NHS rather than in the private sector but I dont think we are liekly to have a government of either colour prepared to take on the GP's and their trade union as they are too well embedded in the establishment

On this topic, I think it'd be quite helpful for many people if GP appointments could be made a couple of hours later one night a week. I'm quite happy for any GPs to tell me why this isn't possible.

Its perfectly possible, someone just needs to pay for it.

I got an asthma check-up letter at the start of a ten week half-term; I'm not going to miss work just to go and blow into a tube a few times so had to leave it for ten weeks before I could go.

So you delayed an non-urgent appointment until when it was convienient for you to go. I fail to see what the issue is.

Also as a teacher you may be timetabled for 10 weeks but that normally includes some free periods and your timetabled hours finish around 4pm. Plenty of time to go to the doctors who don't finish till 6pm.

Although I can see the motive, I hate it when I phone for an appointment for the same day and get asked "is it a medical emergency?"
Obviously if it was an "emergency" I'd be in an ambulance on the way to hospital.
I made the mistake of saying "no" once and then got told the next available appointment would be in a week's time.

So you delayed an non-urgent appointment until when it was convienient for you to go. I fail to see what the issue is.

That was one example, which is more urgent when getting low on repeats for my prescription. Try to imagine something between "non-urgent" and too ill to go to work.

Also as a teacher you may be timetabled for 10 weeks but that normally includes some free periods and your timetabled hours finish around 4pm. Plenty of time to go to the doctors who don't finish till 6pm.

Free lessons aren't long enough to get there, be seen half an hour after my appointment time and then get back again. My timetable extends to 9pm one day a week and we have meetings on one more.

Appointments cannot be made in advance, just by phoning on the day and taking pot luck.

Mike, my old mans a teacher. When he needs to see a doc during the day he can usually get the time. Also, repeat prescriptions? Have gp's stopped doing these over the phone? If yes, book in advance. Whilst you're at it, get a real job that only has 4 weeks holiday a year.

If you're prescription needs become urgent then ask to see the duty doctor, if you seem overly anxious about it they should let you see him or her.

When the practice only gives you a 28 day script, you get told when you pick up that prescription that you have to have an annual medication review (new guidelines apparently), the nearest appointment you can get is 3 weeks away if you can't miss work to attend and it takes 6 days to request and issue a repeat prescription it's not hard to see how people run out of medication.

Did you miss the bit where this was a new thing and I was told 28 days in advance? This is in addition to an annual review I have which involves blood tests. I suggested maybe combining the two but got 'computer says no'

The doctor at the 'review' admitted it was nothing but a box ticking exercise, repeat that across the practice and what a monumental waste of time.

28 days is plenty of time, if its that important you are entitled to take time off work.

Blood test? Oh noes, you have to go in twice a year now.

Allthepies, if you think private doesn't have it's fair share of problems go to the US where healthcare is a race to the bottom in the pursuit of profits. Or you could go to Cuba, which has an excellent healthcare system given their resources

28 days is plenty of time, if its that important you are entitled to take time off work.

I'm not sure how 28 days is plenty of time when it takes a minimum of 21 days to get an appointment and a further 6 to get a prescription. And we are not allowed time off for doctor's appointments during work time. I'd be interested to see anything that said you were entitled we're going through a review of terms and conditions at the moment and one of the things they tried to change was to not allow time off for hospital appointments either.

Oh noes, you have to go in twice a year now.

Enforcing appointments where the only dialogue is for the gp to say that they have to do a medication review but there's really nothing to say and they just have to tick a box to say it's happened is not a good use of their time or mine.

Why not have the centres open extended hours but GP's available at certain times. Most people have been weaned of the principle of a family GP and would settle for a medical professional with reasonable grasp of English and the vaguest sense of community.

When my mam was working, if she missed work for a Dr appointment then her NHS clients would have turned up for their appointment with her, for which they'd be missing work, to find that she wasn't there. She often complained about the appointment system at her GP surgery.